An Analysis Of Octavia Butler's Kindred

What does it mean to be in love? In Octavia Butler's Kindred the protagonist, Dana, explores what it really means to be in love, or be loved. She travels back to the past where she meets Rufus, her ancestor, who has connections with both Dana and Alice, another one of Dana’s ancestors. Rufus has abusive relationships with Dana and Alice and merely wants to possess them. Ultimately, Butler is suggesting that people become the figures of their time, and cannot change.

Rufus does not love Alice, he only wants to possess her. Rufus abuses her because he wants her, yet she doesn’t want him. “You gentle him for me. He hardly hits me at all when you're here.” (Butler, 228) In this passage, there are two important things. One, Rufus hits Alice on

a normal basis and abuses her, as she does not love him back. However, even if she did love him back, he would still hit her, as later on in the book, Dana makes the observation that he needs a person to take out his anger on. That means that Rufus will never have the same respect for Alice then he would if she were white. The other observation is that when Dana is in the Antebellum, Rufus is more kind towards Alice. This could be because he has someone else to take out his anger on. Or, Rufus could be more kind to Alice because the empty space in his life is filled. He needs a person to take care of him, and that position is filled with Dana.
Rufus does not love Dana, he only wants to possess her. Just like Alice, Rufus takes out his pent-up aggression on Dana. He does not realize that she has a conditional familian love for him, and that he needs, and wants her to stay with him. “‘You’re not leaving!’ He shouted. He sort of crouched around the gun, clearly on the verge of firing. “Damn you, you're not leaving me!’” (Butler, 187) Rufus, when faced with Kevin about to take Dana away, refuses to let her go. He threatens her with a gun, tells her that she can’t leave him, and almost shoots her. If he really loved her, then he wouldn’t threaten her with death. The quotation “You’re not leaving” when taken out of context is not something that people who love each other would say. “You’re not leaving” makes sense in the context of an abusive relationship. This especially proves that he only wants to possess Dana, and doesn’t want to make her happy. It is in these parts of the book that we can really see the truth in Rufus’ relationships with Dana and Alice, however, there are some parts that make it more complicated.
Despite parts of the book that suggest that Rufus really loves Alice, and the feeling is mutual, there are connotations that suggest otherwise.

In one part of the book, Alice smiles after giving birth to Hagar. “It was the first and only time I saw her smile-- a real smile… It silenced him for several seconds. If Alice and Rufus were going to make peace, finally, neither of us wanted to break their mood.” (Butler, 233) Although this passage seems to suggest that Alice is finally coming around to love Rufus, we can actually interpret her happiness in three different ways. She could be happy to finally give birth to a baby that looks like her, or she could be happy to escape from the Weylin plantation, as she told Dana she would after the baby was born. Lastly, she could just be happy because of the excess of hormones in her body after giving birth. Especially due to the fact that she eventually kills herself over Rufus’ actions, it is very unlikely that she really does love Rufus. This proves that no matter what Rufus does, Alice will never love him back. This will only anger him, as he doesn’t want to lose her, which will cause him to hurt her even more. Rufus does not realize that if he truly loves something, sometimes he has to let it

go.
Rufus has no respect for Alice and Dana.

Because of the many similarities between them, Rufus thinks of Dana and Alice as the same person. “‘You really are only one woman. Did you know that?’... ‘I know what he means. He likes me in bed, and you out of bed, and you and I look like if you can believe what other people say… we’re two halves of the same woman, at least in his crazy head’” (Butler, 228) From this passage, we find that in Rufus’ head, Alice and Dana are one person. This means that whenever he hits Alice, he is also hitting Dana, and whatever feelings he has for Alice, he also has for Dana. This is proven in two ways. Near the end of the book, after Alice dies, Rufus tries to rape Dana. This is because he feels the same way about her as he felt about Alice, and her refusal to love him in that way only further solidifies these similarities in his mind. Also, due to the evidence above, we find that if Rufus has an abusive relationship with Alice, that carries over to his relationship with Dana. Thus, as his relationship is abusive with Alice, he also has an abusive relationship with

Dana.
Rufus takes advantage of Alice’s and Dana’s kindness, while wanting them to stay with him forever. Octavia Butler also proposes that people are reflections of their society, and cannot be changed. The quotations presented in this essay, and the combined interpretations prove that Rufus just wants to possess Alice and Dana. As Rufus feels as though he can take advantage of Alice and Dana, perhaps because they are African American. This reflects on the societal conditions of the 1960s and how black people protested, like Dana protesting Rufus’ advancements on her, the white people taking advantage of them.